As I got pulled deeper into solutioning, prototypes started showing up in my conversations. And I noticed people treat them as one of two things: a sales prop to dazzle the customer, or a head start on the real build. I think both miss the point.
A prototype is really a question made concrete.
When a customer and a team are talking in the abstract, everyone nods, and everyone is quietly picturing something slightly different. A rough prototype drags those private pictures into the open. Suddenly there’s a specific thing on the screen to point at and say “no, not like that, like this.” That disagreement is the whole value. It’s cheaper to have it now, over something throwaway, than later over something half-built.
My job in those discussions usually wasn’t technical. It was to keep asking what the prototype actually needed to prove. Which assumption are we testing? What would make us change the plan? A prototype that can’t fail you isn’t telling you anything. It’s just a nicer-looking version of the conversation you were already having.
I find that framing keeps the room honest, and it’s one of the first places I felt genuinely useful standing between the customer and the build.